I am very grateful to you, Mr President,
and to the members of the Bureau of this distinguished Assembly
for having invited me to address you today.

As you know, Mr President, this is the first time I have visited
Strasbourg and it is the first time that I have addressed this Assembly.
I regard it as a great privilege that the opportunity of so doing
should fall to me during the period of your distinguished presidency.

As the Prime Minister of a European country whose outlook
and way of life have been moulded for fifteen centuries by Christian
ideals and the values on which European civilisation rests, it is
a proud moment for me to have this opportunity of addressing this
Assembly which has been the fountain of so many ideas for closer co-operation
between European States with a view to safeguarding their common
heritage and economic and social progress.

Through the Council of Europe, of which my country, Ireland,
was one the founder Members, the need for a closer unity between
countries of our continent has been made manifest. The long list
of European conventions and agreements, most of which had their
origins in the debates of this Assembly, is eloquent proof of what
the Council has initiated and accomplished in the field of human
rights and fundamental freedoms, in the fields of culture and education,
in the Social Charter, and in the fields of social security and
social and medical assistance.

The Council can take pride in the fact that the debates in
this Assembly have inspired the creation of other European institutions.
These and many other achievements reflect the growing consciousness
of the peoples of our eighteen member States of their common European
heritage and their desire to become even more closely united than
ever before to defend what Mr Edouard Herriot, the then President
of the French National Assembly, referred to in his inaugural address
to this Assembly on 10th August 1949 as the “two great acquisitions
of human civilisation: freedom and law”.

The draft programme of future work for the Council of Europe,
which has been drawn up by the Secretary General and which is now
being examined by the Governments, shows a promise of further action
towards economic and social progress. I should like to take this
opportunity of conveying my compliments to the Secretary General
and his staff for their efforts in the preparation of this programme.
Member States have been given a clear picture of the tasks which
are to be undertaken by the Council of Europe. Speaking for the
Irish Government, I can assure you that we will, as in the past,
collaborate whole-heartedly with the other seventeen member States
in the implementation of this programme.

The post-war years in Europe have been marked by an unceasing
search for solutions to the problems – political, social and economic
– that have confronted our peoples. Some of these problems have
their roots in national differences and rivalries; others are more
directly the product of the chaos and destruction left in the wake
of World War II. The spirit and energy with which the solutions
to these problems are being evolved is heartening evidence that
the new era we have seen taking shape over the past twenty years
is not a false dawn. The desire to end past antagonisms and the
conviction that only in unity and amity will Europe find both the
good of its peoples and its proper role in the world are deeply
rooted and, I am convinced, will prevail against all doubts and
difficulties.

There have undeniably been disappointments and initiatives
that have lost their impetus, but none of those efforts has been
without its value in stimulating and shaping new thinking on European
problems. Notwithstanding the setbacks which have been experienced,
the record of achievement is impressive and growing. The organisations
and institutions that have been established and the results they
have been able to achieve are the conspicuous landmarks of progress.
In the time scale of history we Europeans have only just begun a
new life together.

A notable beginning was made with the establishment of the
Organisation of European Co-operation and this Council of Europe,
twin sources of much of the thinking which has helped to influence
the subsequent shaping of Europe. The habit of co-operation which
was engendered and the exchange of ideas which was promoted by these
institutions, as I have already said, particularly in this Assembly,
led to what has been rightly described as the first decisive act
in the building of Europe – the creation of the European Coal and
Steel Community. This was followed by other decisive acts: the establishment
of the European Economic Community, which embodies the grand design
for a united Europe, Euratom and the European Free Trade Association.

We in Ireland have taken a keen sympathetic interest in all
these developments. It is hardly necessary for me to recall to this
distinguished gathering Ireland’s deep interest in this Continent
from the earliest times. European centres of learning bear witness
to the contribution of Irish monks during the golden age of Irish monasticism
towards the restoration of faith and learning on this Continent.
While this is part of our treasured past, we are no less conscious
of the needs of the present.

We have participated as founding Members in the establishment
of the Council of Europe, the Organisation for European Economic
Co-operation and the European Payments Union. We foliowed with the
closest attention the efforts made in these organisations to find
ways of giving practical effect to the declared aim of European unity.
I recall the proposals formulated by the Council of Europe in 1952
for the lowering of tariff barriers in Europe, and also the earlier
proposals, with which you, Mr President, were associated, for a
substantial reduction in European tariffs. These and other initiatives
during the years, by directing attention to the divisive effect
of trade barriers, helped to prepare the ground for the establishment
of the European Economic Community, and the parallel efforts to
find the solutions for the problems which the emergence of that Community
was seen to present to other European countries.

We support the OECD decision of July 1956 to study the possibility
of creating a European free trade area embracing all EEC member
countries and we joined in the subsequent negotiations to that end.
I need not dwell on the disappointment, concern and dismay occasioned
for us in Ireland when the failure of these negotiations was followed
by the subsequent division of Europe into two groups, the European
Economic Community and the European Free Trade Association, to neither
of which we belonged. These developments, however, were productive
of one benefit to us, in that they served to bring home in a vivid
way to all sections of our people the relevance to our economic
welfare of the movement towards European unity and the preparations
we had to make in order to participate in that movement.

That this conviction and understanding extended to the great
majority of my countrymen is shown by the almost unanimous support
for the Irish Government’s decision in the summer of 1961 to seek
membership of the European Economic Community. In my formal statement
to the Ministers of the Governments of the member States of that
Community in the following January I was able to say without qualification
that we shared the ideals which inspired the parties to the Treaty
of Rome and that we accepted the aims of the Community as set out
in that Treaty, as well as the action proposed to achieve those
aims.

In anticipation of the changes which membership of the European
Economic Community would bring for our country, energetic measures
were introduced to prepare the national economy for the obligations
it would have to assume. As a people who had only recently come
into control of our own affairs, for whom industrial development
was seen to be essential for economic welfare, and who had been
actively pursuing a policy directed to bringing this about, entry
into a free trade system evoked problems and involved risks which
more highly developed countries could face with less concern. We
realised, however, that participation in a European free trade system
would give us also the prospects of greater and more durable developments
in every sphere. For this reason we began energetically with the
reorganisation of Irish industry to equip it to meet European competition.
A comprehensive survey on a scale never before attempted in our
country was made of all aspects of industrial activity in order
to identify weaknesses and devise remedies. In all this preparatory
work the Government had the fullest co-operation of all branches
of the economy.

It was a grave setback to our hopes and plans when consideration
of our application for membership of the Community had to be suspended
following the Brussels breakdown of January 1963. Nevertheless,
I and my colleagues in the Irish Government remained convinced that
the situation which had arisen was no more than a temporary interruption,
a temporary suspension of progress towards European unity. Speaking
in our Parliament in February 1963, I said that the forces making
for European unity which received such an impetus after the last
world war would, I felt sure, be strengthened as time went on and
must in the end prevail. Today, and notwithstanding all the difficulties
which have since manifested themselves, I am even more strongly
of this opinion.

The strength of our conviction in this respect is shown by
the decision that the Irish Government’s second programme for economic
expansion, announced in the autumn of 1963 and designed to cover
the seven-year period to 1970, should be based on the assumption
that Ireland would be a Member of the European Economic Community
before 1970. That programme provided for the implementation of a
scheme of unilateral tariff reductions on which we had decided in
preparation for our entry to EEC and as part of the world-wide movement
towards free trade. In pursuance of this programme we have already
made two across-the-board reductions of our tariffs, each of 10
per cent.

These and other measures we are taking to prepare our economy
for the removal of trade barriers in Europe and they are an indication
of our intention and desire to participate fully and at the earliest
possible moment in the building of the unity of Western Europe.

Unilateral measures of the kind which we have been taking,
while they may have their value, can be rendered much more fruitful
if supplemented by improved export opportunities, so necessary to
a country circumstanced as Ireland is. I may illustrate the point
by saying that an exceptionally high proportion of our gross national product
– as much as 25 per cent – is derived from merchandise exports.
We live by trade and, with our small home market, the continued
expansion of our economy is very largely dependent on our ability
to maintain a satisfactory rate of growth in our export trade. The
achievement of our objective has in recent years been rendered all
the more difficult by our being outside the two trading groups in
Western Europe which are expected to complete the removal of internal
barriers to trade by 1967.

Our historic past and our present economic links bind us to
Europe, and a prime concern of the Irish Government has been to
find ways of strengthening these links in the interval before the
way is clear for us to join in an enlarged European Community embracing
all European countries ready to participate in it.

Our two principal trading partners are Britain and EEC. We
could not, in the circumstances which have obtained, develop our
links with the Community without serious damage to our special trading
relationship with Britain, which accounts for approximately three
fifths of our total external trade. It was natural, therefore, that we
should concentrate our efforts on improving our trading relations
with that country in a way that would be consistent with the eventual
participation of both countries in an enlarged European Community.
As delegates may be aware, a Free Trade Area Agreement with Britain
was signed in London last month which will come into operation on
1st July this year.

This new Agreement with Britain provides for the elimination
of protective duties and quantitative restrictions on trade between
the two countries – immediately in the case of duties and restrictions
applied by Britain, and over a nine-year transitional period in
the case of those applied by Ireland.

The negotiation of this Agreement is one of the most important
developments ever in our external economic relations. Its conclusion
has been facilitated by the high degree of free trade already existing
between the two countries, and by the energetic measures we have
been taking to prepare the Irish economy for the kind of trading
conditions that will be encountered when the opportunity comes to
join in an enlarged European Community.

Apart from the immediate trading benefits which it confers,
the Agreement is important for us in that it marks a step closer
to Europe and so helps dispel much of the uncertainty which in recent
years has handicapped us in the taking of fundamental decisions
affecting the future course of our economy. We are prepared to consider other
possibilities, such as seeking membership of EFTA, to enable U3
to participate in a wider European grouping as a further interim
step towards our ultimate objective, which is to form part of an
economically integrated Europe. Whether this objective is to be
reached either directly by entry into an enlarged European Economic
Community or via EFTA, we would hope that the terms of transition
would correspond to those of our free trade arrangements with Britain.
These terms are designed to afford us a reasonable opportunity of effecting,
without undue disturbance to our economy, the changeover to free-trading
conditions and thus to prepare ourselves for participation in a
single European market.

I think I have said sufficient to reaffirm my country’s sincere
attachment to the ideal of European unity and our earnest desire
to take a constructive part in future developments in Europe. At
the same time, I have endeavoured to give some indication, of the
steps we in Ireland have been taking in preparation for our full participation
in the new Europe. We believe that the peoples of Europe, with their
background of culture and tradition, their community of outlook
and spirit and their highly developed skills, have in unison an
immense potential for human benefit not alone in Europe but throughout
the world. We look forward with confidence to a united Europe –
a Europe firmly committed to its own development in peace and harmony
and thus the better able to serve the cause of peace in the world
and the freeing of all mankind from the scourge of poverty, hunger and
disease. (Applause.)